“The matter is of interest because Mr. McCain, who followed Mr. Obama’s hourlong appearance in the forum, was asked virtually the same questions as Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain’s performance was well received …”

On yesterday’s “Meet the Press,” Andrea Mitchell put the obvious question into words: “The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that — what they’re putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama … He seemed so well prepared.”

Warren is on Larry King’s show tomorrow night; the questions that King should ask him are things like:

1) What were the rules of the game were intended to be ahead of time, particularly as it reflects the ‘cone of silence’?

2) Did he specifically request that the McCain people have their candidate show up to the event by at least the time of Barack Obama’s interview?

3) When did he learn that McCain had not in fact been placed into the ‘cone of silence’?

Whether Warren actually believes that McCain heard the questions or not is immaterial. Warren, evidently, considers both McCain and Obama to be friends, and he takes them at their word.

But the point is, there were supposed to be controls in place that prevented this situation from arising — a situation where McCain was in a position to cheat without any consequence for having done so. Those controls broke down. We need to learn more about what those controls were, and why they broke down.

Good questions, but the Opinionator has one for Nate: What does it say about Campaign ’08 that we’re looking to Larry King to set things straight?

All who are wondering about the Cone of Silence & the Story of the Cross, HAVE A DUTY to also ask the Main Stream Media to look into these stories and if they are proven to be true, there should be no wall of silence on these stories. Public has a right to know what kind of character their leaders have before pulling the lever in the ballot box.

• The Politico — McCain campaign protests NBC’s coverage: Rick Davis, manager of Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign, called Sunday “for a meeting with Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, to protest what the campaign called signs that the network is ‘abandoning non-partisan coverage of the presidential race.’ ” The trigger was a comment by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who said on the air Sunday that some aides to Democrat Barack Obama thought McCain might have been listening Saturday as Obama was being questioned during Pastor Rick Warren’s “civil forum” (Warren had said McCain would be in a “cone of silence). The McCain campaign says the candidate did not hear any of the Obama-Warren exchanges.

Of course McCain either watched the first-half of Obama’s interview, listened to it, or received updates from his staff via cellphone. Give me a break! Roles reversed, I would be thinking the same from Obama’s camp.

The problem I have with this is that it is the same old Republican administration mischief that we have seen for years now. Why was McCain late? Innocently ironing his pants I’m sure…

McCain 5th from the bottom of his class in college and an admitted slacker… But wait he was a POW, just what we need for President of the United States.

Of course McCain heard the questions. He might have been given the answers that would resonate with the audience. So what. These are the rules of political game. Barack is the kid in the woods here. He shouldn’t have allowed himself to get into this kind of position.

Either Rick Warren was in on it or he wasnt but that does’nt change Mcain knew the questions ahead of time. He should have arrived before Obama aired to assure fairness .He didnt .
Mr Warren was obligated to ensure this .
He didnt, maybe on purpose
End of discussion!!

McCain can say with all honesty that he “didn’t hear the questions” but unless he was sequestered somehow that does not mean that his staff did not have time to brief him and prepare him. If there were “rules” to this procedure, and McCain did not strictly adhere to the “rules” . . . than we are facing a man who would truly carry one Bush’s third term.

Why do the media assume that because McCain answered the questions sharply that he must have cheated? Is it possible that McCain is not senile or the dimwitted dullard that Democrats assume all Republicans to be?

This whole “cone of silence” ruse reminds me of the 1980 debate between Reagan and Carter. Everyone left the debate amazed at how sharp Reagan was. Reagan was able to do so well because George Will used the stolen Carter’s briefing notes to coach Reagan for the debate. Now, as then we have an older Republican candidate for President with questionable intellect performing better than expected in a debate. Voters who may have been impressed with McCain’s performance need to know that they were lied to when they were told that McCain was under a “cone of silence.” It should also be noted that McCain’s denial does not say that he was briefed about the questions and coached on how to respond to them by aids who had watched Senator Obama’ first hour. The fact, that he answered some of the questions before they were asked clearly shows that he was not responding to the questions under the same conditions that Senator Obama had.

Why is everyone worrying about the so-called “cone of silence.” I am worrying about the fact that this sort of religious forum is going on in an election year promoted by an evangelistic preacher. It has been given far more media attention or credence that deserved. We live in a country that should be bound by separation of church and state but that idea is slowly being eroded by the likes of this Warren character. I DONT LIKE this one little bit and want to return to the days when no one cared what the candidates thought about religion. We are on the precipice of disaster if this continues.
-posted by Betsy Herring

You people are just outrageous. McCain has a brain and he is capable of using it and has been using it in Washington for over 2 decades. These were personal questions and don’t you think McCain is capable of responding on his own emotions and viewpoints without cheating. Obama did not do well in the debate against Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania in the primaries and you jumped all over Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolus for that one and he did not do as well as McCain in this forum. Big deal! Get over it. If Obama slips, which is a human attribute after all, it must be someone elses fault. Give it a rest people. He is not a Messiah that is perfect even though you Obamamanics think that he is. I am reminded about one of Obama’s responses regarding his drug use and drinking where he said it was a period of selfishness in his life when he thought it was all about him. Well in that regard nothing has changed and you people are just feeding that sort of image in that he can do no wrong, the fault has to lie elsewhere. Are you going to hold his hand in the White House and fight every battle for him? If so maybe he should pack it in right now and go home to Chicago.

I found this statement form McCain’s campaign (Nicolle Wallace)ridiculous

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,”

We aren’t supposed to question anything about McCain because he was a POW? A POW is above cheating?

I guess Keating Five was just a lapse or cheating on his first wife?

I believe the past actions, words, ads from the McCain campaign shows they are certainly capable of taking advantage and listening to the questions. Recall McCain answered one question before it was even asked – Warren told him he was going too fast.

If the cross story wsas so meaningful to McCain, why diddn’t it appear in the McCain mythology until aground 1999. It wasn’t in his book about his POW experieince or in the extensive articles written about that experience.

He’s wanted to be president for a long time. He’s shown he’ll do whatever it takes.

What contortions some folks will go to in trying to explain why McCain at least held his own to Obama! If Obama smokes McCain it is because of his superior skills. If McCain is even close it is because he cheated. The winner of the night was the American public who heard a civil discussion and actually learned something about each candidate. The Olbermann/OReilly talking heads came out the losers for such partisan rants that only cause me to go to other sources to learn something about either candidate.

Everytime the Democrats (which includes NBC!) feel Obama isn’t doing well they reflexively scream “McCain is a cheater” or “McCain has turned mean” or “McCain is despicable”. Just grow up and accept the failings of your candidate. We’ll do the same.